1. See the older but still valid analysis by Val R. Lorwin, “Belgium: Religion, Class, and Language in National Politics,” in Robert A. Dahl, ed., Political Oppositions in Western Democracies (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1966), 147–87.

2. See Micke Van Haegendoren and Etienne De Jonghe, Roergangers in de mist: Sociale ongelijkheid en malaise van de besluitvorming in Belgie (Antwerp/Amsterdam: Standaard Wetenschappelijke Uitgeverji, 1977), 173–76.

3. Van Haegendoren and De Jonghe, Roergangers in de mist, 167.

4. One hundred and forty questionnaires were sent to the members of five of the thirteen branches in the Belgium Antwerp Mission, which covers the whole of Flanders. Three of these branches had a longer Church history (Antwerp-North, Antwerp-South, and Ghent); two branches had a shorter church history and are representative of smaller cities, one in the western part of the country (Kortrijik) and one in the eastern part (Hasselt/Genk). These members were all those mentioned in the Jaaragenda 1980, published by the Belgium Antwerp Mission, which includes all active and semiactive members. A few of these could have turned inactive in the meantime, but generally speaking the circularized persons were all active LDS. The results thus deal only with active members: it would be interesting to do a comparative investigation dealing with inactive members. Response included 92 persons, or 66 percent, a high ratio for this kind of anonymous correspondence investigation. A calculation based upon the monthly activity report of the Belgium Antwerp Mission in the same period showed that the number of local adult members attending church averaged 330. The sample thus represents 27.8 percent of the total active LDS adult population.

5. The other affiliations, 3.3 percent, represent in the investigation only a few individuals—an Anglican, a Lutheran, and a Jew—all of foreign origin.

6. Jabez Bunting, cited in James B. Allen and Malcolm R. Thorp, “The Mission of the Twelve to England, 1840–41: Mormon Apostles and the Working Classes,” BYU Studies 15 (Summer 1975): 514.

7. Although more research would be needed, a few well-known LDS converts can be cited: Louis Bertrand, associate of the Utopian Socialist Cabet and editor of the daily Le Populaire (see Wilfied Decoo, “The Image of Mormonism in French Literature: Part I,” BYU Studies 14 [Winter 1974]: 168); Frederick Ferdinand Samuelsen, Social Democrat parliamentarian in Denmark (see personal correspondence with Richard Jenson, 20 February 1981); Arthur Henry King, “If it had not been for Marx, I should not yet be in this Church, if at all” (cited in F. LaMond Tullis, ed., Mormonism: A Faith for All Cultures [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1978], 356); Seiji Katanuma, “Before joining the Church I was myself a Marxist” (cited in Tullis, Mormonism, 357).

8. F. LaMond Tullis, “Politics and Society: Anglo-American Mormons in a Revolutionary Land,” BYU Studies 13 (Winter 1973): 126–34; F. LaMond Tullis, “Mormonism and Revolution in Latin America,” BYU Studies 16 (Winter 1976): 235–49; F. LaMond Tullis, “The Church Moves Outside the United States: Some Observations from Latin America,” Dialogue 13 (Spring 1980): 63–73. See also Robert R. King on the situation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: “The Communist governments have set in motion social and economic changes that are beginning to weaken this link [between religion and nationality]. . . . And by encouraging social, political, and economic change the Communist parties in Eastern Europe are preparing the field for the harvest” (Robert R. King, “Religion and Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,” BYU Studies 15 [Spring 1975]: 346–47). Robert S. Jordan also recognizes proselyting opportunities created by political change. However, he identifies the underlying forces by the ambiguous term secularization and views this as only part of “non-communist authoritarian political systems” (Robert S. Jordan with Parley W. Newman Jr., “The Political Challenges: Mormons, Governments and Politics,” in Tullis, Mormonism, 298).

9. We should recognize, however, that for these averages the variances were rather high.

10. For example, various directives for absolute neutrality in countries with leftist tendencies; various public relation offensives through BYU performance groups in communist countries; the decision to not publish in the non-English Church magazines an anticommunist general conference talk by President Ezra Taft Benson (October 1979); “‘realist” accommodation between the Church and Communist regimes” (see Ray C. Hillam, “Utopian and Realistic Thought in International Relations: Some Scriptural Perspectives,” Dialogue 13 [Winter 1980]: 106; see also Bill Heaton, “Mormonism and Maoism: The Church and People’s China,” Dialogue 13 [Spring 1980]: 40–50).

11. Martin B. Hickman, “The International System and the Missionary Church,” in American Heritage: A Syllabus for Social Science 100 (Provo: Brigham Young University Publications, 1976), 607.

12. See also J. Michael Cleverly, “The Church and la Politica Italiano,” Dialogue 13 (Spring 1980): 105–7.

13. L. Dwight Israelson, “Mormons, the Constitution, and the Host Economy,” in American Heritage, A-56–57.

14. For example, Letter of the First Presidency, 29 June 1979.

15. This charge is related to a 1979 case when two Flemish LDS schoolteachers working in Catholic schools were dismissed because of their religious convictions.

16. For an analysis of a comparable evolution in the RLDS church, see Howard J. Booth, “Shifts in Restoration Thought,” Dialogue 13 (Fall 1980): 79–92.

17. On this theme, see Gustav H. Blanke, “God’s Base of Operations: Mormon Variations on the American Sense of Mission,” BYU Studies 20 (Fall 1979): 83–92; Garth N. Jones, “Expanding LDS Church Abroad: Old Realities Compounded,” Dialogue 13 (Spring 1980): 8–22; John L. Sorenson, “Mormon World View and American Culture,” Dialogue 8 (Summer 1973): 17–29.

18. See also J. K. Davies, “The Mormon Church: Its Middle-Class Propensities,” Review of Religious Research 4 (1962): 84–95.

19. Hugh Nibley, “Beyond Politics,” BYU Studies 15 (Autumn 1974): 3–28.

Wilfried Decoo

BYU Studies Publications